Many web-based services require individual user accounts that are unique to the service. Identity management principles provide a framework for organizing individual user identities along with their authentication, authorization, and privileges in a given system. Identity management allows system administrators to easily create and remove user identities, manage access privileges, and monitor resource usage, for example. These features are critical to the operation of larger systems that rely on individual user identities, such as enterprise systems and electronic exchange systems.
Conventionally, user administration tasks were performed manually. For example, an administrator would have to enter necessary information into the system using a user interface to, for example, create a new user identity. Because user-driven manual processes are less efficient, conventional identity management systems may suffer from extended downtime when problems occur. Additionally, existing systems do not.